This comment may have been at the crux of one or both downvotes. As for how it could have been done better, I suppose you could have been more careful as to better explain what you were asking about. There seems to have been a lot of initial confusion. Even after the edits, I find this wording a bit awkward: What kind of word/phrase is "thank you" or a "thank you" if you prefer.
– J.R.Sep 8 '13 at 1:05

1 Answer
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It received two downvotes: I wouldn't describe that as "so many". Other questions receive far more.

No-one can answer why or by whom it was downvoted, and therefore we do not know that they were because the question "could have been better done". Some people apparently downvote on a whim.

The tooltip for the downvote button reads:

This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful.

Although that obviously does not mean that users do not downvote for other reasons, IMHO it's possible that users thought that the question did "not show any research effort" or that it was "not useful".